Autofocus and/or autoscaling in telesurgery

Abstract

Robotic, telerobotic, and/or telesurgical devices, systems, and methods take advantage of robotic structures and data to calculate changes in the focus of an image capture device in response to movement of the image capture device, a robotic end effector, or the like. As the size of an image of an object shown in the display device varies with changes in a separation distance between that object and the image capture device used to capture the image, a scale factor between a movement command input may be changed in response to moving an input device or a corresponding master/slave robotic movement command of the system. This may enhance the perceived correlation between the input commands and the robotic movements as they appear in the image presented to the system operator.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. An apparatus comprising:
 an image capture device configured to capture an image of an object at a site with an initial focus point; 
 a slave robotic linkage configured to move the object or the image capture device with a relative movement, the robotic linkage comprising a plurality of slave robotic joints and sensors for sensing mechanical movement about the plurality of slave robotic joints; 
 an actuator configured to adjust the focus or magnification setting of the image capture device; and 
 a processor configured to determine, based on the sensed movement from the sensors, a change in distance between the image capture device and the initial focus point, the processor further configured to adjust the focus or magnification setting of the image capture device by controlling said actuator according to a predetermined relationship between the focus or magnification setting and the change in distance based on the sensed movement; 
 the predetermined relationship being derived from parametric empirical measurements of the image capture device. 
 
     
     
       2. The apparatus of  claim 1 , further comprising a master input device, the robotic linkage configured to move said image capture device at least in part in response to movement of the master input device. 
     
     
       3. The apparatus of  claim 1 , the processor further configured to adjust the magnification setting in response to an input from an operator of the system. 
     
     
       4. The apparatus of  claim 3 , the input comprising a button press on the master input device. 
     
     
       5. The apparatus of  claim 1 , further comprising a plurality of image capture devices each having an adjustable magnification setting, each image capture device removably coupleable to the robotic linkage, the plurality of sensors for sensing mechanical movement further comprising sensors for detecting movement of each image capture device, wherein the processor is further configured to adjust the magnification setting of each image capture device in response to signals sent from the plurality of sensors to the processor. 
     
     
       6. The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the image capture device has a first magnification setting and a second magnification setting, and wherein the processor is further configured to adjust a focus setting of the image capture device in response to a change in the magnification setting so as to maintain a focus point of the image capture device. 
     
     
       7. The apparatus of  claim 1 , further comprising a display coupled to the image capture device, wherein a display scale of an object shown on the display varies with a separation distance between a focal point of the image capture device and the image capture device. 
     
     
       8. The apparatus of  claim 7 , further comprising:
 an input device for inputting a master/slave movement command; 
 the processor further configured to determine the movement corresponding to the movement command per a motion scale factor, the processor further configured to alter the motion scale factor in response to relative movement between the initial focus point and the image capture device so as to compensate for changes in the display scale. 
 
     
     
       9. The apparatus of  claim 7 , further comprising:
 an input device coupled to the processor for inputting a movement command; 
 a robotic manipulator coupled to the processor, the processor further configured to determine a movement of the robotic manipulator corresponding to the movement command according to a motion scale factor, the processor further configured to alter the motion scale factor in response to the movement of the image capture device so as to compensate for changes in the display scale. 
 
     
     
       10. The apparatus of  claim 1 , the image capture device comprising a selectable magnification optical train having a plurality of alternative magnification lenses. 
     
     
       11. The apparatus of  claim 1 , the image capture device comprising a selectable magnification optical train having an electronic pixel variation system. 
     
     
       12. The apparatus of  claim 1 , the image capture device comprising a continuous zoom system for adjusting the magnification setting. 
     
     
       13. The apparatus of  claim 1 , the image capture device further having an adjustable focus setting, the processor configured to adjust the focus setting in response to a change in the magnification setting. 
     
     
       14. The apparatus of  claim 1 , the processor further configured to adjust the focus setting according to a predetermined relationship between the focus setting and a change in the magnification setting. 
     
     
       15. The apparatus of  claim 1 , the plurality of sensors comprising an encoder of the robotic linkage. 
     
     
       16. The apparatus of  claim 1 , the plurality of sensors comprising a potentiometer of the robotic linkage.